‘Black Panther’ leads box office for fifth-straight weekend
BLACK Panther, Walt Disney Co.’s new superhero hit, stole the show for a fifth-straight weekend, beating a lacklustre Tomb Raider reboot by Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros.
The African superhero movie collected US$27 million this weekend in North American theatres, researcher ComScore Inc. estimated Sunday in an email. That makes the picture the first to lead the domestic box office for five straight weeks since Avatar went on to hold the crown for seven weeks in 2010. Tomb Raider, with Alicia Vikander taking the role made famous by Angelina Jolie, placed second with US$23.5 million, ahead of three other new wide releases.
Black Panther continues to buoy theatres at home and abroad. In recent days, the film has risen to No. 16 in all-time sales, passing The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Its cumulative sales in North America climbed to US$605.4 million, according to ComScore, making it only the seventh movie to top US$600 million.
Internationally, Black Panther took in US$30 million this weekend, bringing its global cumulative revenue to US$1.18 billion, ComScore said.
With Tomb Raider, critics were split over Vikander’s reprisal of the video-game icon, with only 38 per cent of top reviewers having positive reviews, according to aggregator RottenTomatoes.com The movie, which cost US$94 million to make, was expected to earn US$24.8 million on its first weekend, according to analysts at Box Office Mojo. In Warner Bros.’ resuscitation of the franchise Lara Croft, Vikander stars as the daughter of an eccentric adventurer and has set out to solve the mystery of his disappearance. The film was made in partnership with MetroGoldwyn-Mayer Inc.
Three other new releases vied for moviegoers’ attention. Love, Simon, a coming-of-age tale about young gay man, placed fifth with US$11.5 million in sales for 21st Century Fox Inc.’s film division. That missed the forecast of US$14.3 million from Box Office Pro.
Roadside Attractions’ I Can Only Imagine, a family film about the Christian band MercyMe, placed third with US$17.1 million, beating Box Office Mojo’s forecast of US$6 million. 7 Days in Entebbe, from Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures and Focus Features, didn’t crack ComScore’s top 10 list.